The NZMeccano 10-set survey results

The NZMeccano 10-set survey is available here. If you are the fortunate owner of one of Meccano's largest outfits,
please tell us about it by going to that page!

This page shows some of the results of our 10-set survey, from the live data collected so far.

If you can think of other information you would
like to see (from the data we retrieved), please make a comment at the bottom of this page and we'll see whether it can be added!

The survey was launched on 7th September 2009, and the results
to date are as follows:

Overall data set

So far, 454 people have filled in the survey form, describing 741 complete outfits. These
people have an average of 1.63 outfits each!

The outfits described are as follows:

All outfits, grouped by outfit number

Outfit 10

503

Outfit 9+9A

54

Outfit 6

29

Outfit 7

27

Outfit L

25

Outfit 6+6a

21

Box E

21

Outfit K+Ka

10

And here's where all the outfits are located:

All outfits, grouped by location

UK

279

Australia

66

New Zealand

54

Rest of Europe

47

USA

42

Canada

40

South Africa

20

Rest of world

13

Asia

5

South America

3

France

2

Here's what people do with their 10-sets:

Outfits 10 and 9+9A only, grouped by how they are used

I build models

210

I keep it in a box

137

In my building stock

92

Undecided

87

Something else

14

Looking only at the 10-sets, the colour schemes are as follows:

Outfits 10 and 9+9A only, grouped by colour

Medium red/green

194

Blue/yellow/zinc

139

Light red/green

69

French blue/yellow/zinc

51

Dark blue/Dark yellow

25

Zinc/yellow/black

19

Blue/gold

18

Silver/yellow/black

14

Other or mixed

12

Blue/gold/green

5

Dark red/dark green

4

French blue/gold

2

Nickel plated

2

Meccano Builders results

If we limit ourselves to the Meccano 'builders', those who have said that they build models with their 10-sets or who have split the
parts up into their building stock, we can split up the analysis by colour scheme. In the following graph, the builders
are in red and the collectors are in green:

All 10 (or 9+9A) outfits grouped by colour, showing those used for building (red) and collecting (green)

Medium red/green

102

92

194

Blue/yellow/zinc

96

43

139

Light red/green

32

37

69

French blue/yellow/zinc

31

20

51

Dark blue/Dark yellow

7

18

25

Zinc/yellow/black

11

8

19

Blue/gold

6

12

18

Silver/yellow/black

4

10

14

Other or mixed

7

5

12

Blue/gold/green

5

5

Dark red/dark green

4

4

French blue/gold

1

1

2

Nickel plated

2

2

Collectors' outfits

George asked me to show the colour distribution of 'show' outfits, those that are in really super condition and are
true survivors. To qualify for this, we need to look at only those outfits that are in better than 'excellent' condition,
with at least the original cabinet, were manufactured by Meccano, and aren't used for building models. The colour schemes
break down like this:

Meccano-made 10 or 9+9A outfits, in better than excellent condition, with cabinet, manuals, and parts boxes

Medium red/green

24

Light red/green

15

Blue/yellow/zinc

12

French blue/yellow/zinc

9

Dark blue/Dark yellow

8

Silver/yellow/black

4

Zinc/yellow/black

4

Blue/gold

1

Blue/gold/green

1

As expected, the 'classic' medium red/green presentation cabinet is the most common, as it is seen as the definitive No.10 set, even by
Meccanomen who were brought up on later colour schemes.

458 outfits (61.8%) are in an original cabinet or box

245 outfits (33.1%) are in a reproduction cabinet

519 outfits (70.0%) have all their manuals

361 outfits (48.7%) have their small parts boxes

236 outfits (31.8%) have their original stringing cards

163 outfits (22.0%) have dust sheets or shrinkwrapping

143 outfits (19.3%) have their outer packing carton

197 outfits (26.6%) have a key!

How did we find them?

So, where do people buy their large Meccano outfits? Here's an analysis of the source of outfits, broken down into
those outfits bought before 2000 (in red) and since 2000 (in green):

No surprises here, with eBay taking over as the primary source of Meccano outfits in the last decade. Meccano club members,
friends, and Spanners make up the most common sources for more recently purchased outfits. What this chart does show us is
that a large proportion of outfits have changed hands in the last few years.

Note that outfits where there was no purchase date, or no source information, are not shown in this chart.

Further breakdown of outfits

Let's have a look at all of the outfits now (of any size), and see how many are original and how many have been 'built up'
from either spare parts or over a gradual period through various stages. The original outfits are in red, the built up ones
in green:

All Meccano outfits, by colour, showing original (red) and built-up (green) outfits

Medium red/green

88

101

189

Blue/yellow/zinc

80

51

131

Light red/green

38

27

65

French blue/yellow/zinc

30

19

49

Dark blue/Dark yellow

17

9

26

Blue/gold

16

9

25

Nickel plated

11

10

21

Zinc/yellow/black

14

6

20

Silver/yellow/black

10

6

16

Dark red/dark green

8

7

15

Other or mixed

2

10

12

Blue/gold/green

2

5

7

French blue/gold

2

1

3

As expected, the most common 'built up' outfit by far is the medium red/green. Original nickel outfits surprisingly show only
one entry. The unusual 'mixed colour' original outfit is an export one which was supplied in a mixture of medium red/green and light red/green.

Let's break down the outfits in the same way – red for original and green for built-up:

All Meccano outfits, by outfit number, showing original (red) and built-up (green) outfits

Outfit 10

257

246

503

Outfit 9+9A

28

26

54

Outfit 6

9

20

29

Outfit 7

10

17

27

Outfit L

7

18

25

Outfit 6+6a

4

17

21

Box E

1

20

21

Outfit K+Ka

4

6

10

Comments

Total number of messages on this page: 12. This is page 1 of 2.

Richard (at 9:45am, Thu 8th Dec, 16)

Vic,
Click on the Outfits tab at the top of the page and you will see at the bottom of the list that pops up "Parts List Generator". Select the year and outfit size and a list of parts will be generated which you can copy into Excel or Word and then print off.

Vic Harrison (at 8:21am, Thu 8th Dec, 16)

I have just bough a Set 10 privately through your site and it seems to be 99% all new parts.
How can I check if it is 100% complete?
Vic

Len (at 5:24pm, Mon 14th Jul, 14)

Forgot to mention I also own a pristine 1970's No.9 Outfit in it's original wooden box with the poly inserts and all the manuals.

Len (at 5:07pm, Mon 14th Jul, 14)

I also own a complete run of red/green outfits from 00 through to 9, a No.8 Gold/blue hatched set, Elektrikit, Mechanisms & Gears Outfits, plus a run of late 60's sets from Play Set through to Breakdown Crew Set. And a couple of Accessory Outfits thrown in for good measure, a late 1950's 8A and a mid 50's 1A plus loads of loose parts!

Alan Esplen (at 10:02am, Tue 29th Oct, 13)

Is there a record of the names of those who have taken part in the survey. I took part in the original Spanner survey but am not sure if I added my two No 10 sets to this one. I do not want to distort the figures by taking part twice.

Alan

Enrique Segre (at 8:49pm, Sat 20th Jul, 13)

I have since the last survey ,besides my original 10 set(1970) and probably another two in parts, become some sort of collector as I bought the following: